OUCH!

well, it finally happened. i joked with my friend danielle lots of times that no one ever falls or gets hurt while running, that its a crazy thought. and saturday, i bit the sidewalk, big time. i was jogging to meet up with everyone from BOMF, and kat & diane, for our saturday 10 mile run.....and coming up to the corner we meet at, i noticed that the group was really large for a saturday, and was trying to see who was there, wasnt paying attention. boom. went FLYING. i tripped, and flew, and slammed into the sidewalk, on my hands and knees, thankfully not my head. i threw my iphone (thankfully it survived), and i didnt even know if i could stand back up right away, it hurt so badly. i looked up and Austin, and one of the bomf guys were running towards me (i was still a block away, so I wasnt sure the group had spotted me yet), and they were helping me up before i knew it. i pulled up my pant legs, and both knees were pretty banged up, along with the palms of both hands.....and the side of one hand (explain how i hit the palm AND the back of my hand in the same fall, haha). so i hobbled to the rest of the group, poured some water on the wounds to clean off some of the gravel.....cried for a few minutes. (yes, i cried, it hurt like hell!!), and started off on a ten mile run!!

it wasnt a horrible run, the weather was nice, good company as always, and lots of friendly faces along the path, but my left knee was really in alot of pain, and i was ready to be done. and VERY glad it was a smaller distance. so i got home, quickly showered, cleaned up all my cuts, and ran out the door for a camping/hiking trip to delaware water gap! it was an AMAZING time, we hiked up to sunfish pond saturday night, probably a 3 mile hike uphill or so. sunday, we hiked Mt. Tammeny, probably about 4 miles of hiking, and 1500 feet of elevation climbed. all the while though, my knee was still really hurting.

well, i'm paying for it today. my left knee is still really really swollen, purple, full of cuts/scrapes, and hurts when i bend it. basically, i'm re-opening the wounds everytime i bend my knee, haha. and hiking and not icing it all weekend has really set me back. i couldnt run this morning, i biked to work and winced in pain everytime i pedalled. basically, i think im going to have to take it slow for a few days. luckily, i dont REALLY bend my knees that much when i run because of my stride, so i might be able to do some easy runs until these wounds heal up. i'm a little worried about the swelling though, hopefully more icing will help.

sigh.....only 6 weeks till the marathon, a 20 mile run next weekend, and this is NOT what i needed to happen!!

so here's a happy photo from my hiking adventures this weekend to cheer things up a bit :)

Achy breaky knee

An update is long overdue on my part. The past week has just been a little frustrating and so giving a recap wasn't exactly at the top of my to-do list. Last week, after a nice and easy 4 mile run, my knee began to hurt. I ran that morning and after sitting at work all day it started to feel stiff, and walking -- especially up and down stairs -- became an unpleasant task. I tried stretching it out and icing it down when I got home, which helped momentarily but not fully. The next morning I woke up early and got ready to run 5 miles. My knee felt a little uncomfortable, but nothing terrible; I figured it would go away once I got warmed up and started moving. After a mile it started to hurt. After another quarter mile even more. I though to myself, "Just push through it, the pain will go away". No such luck. Just shy of two miles i was reduced to a limp, running through the park hardly able to bend my leg. I'm sure I was a site to behold, trying to swing my left leg in front of me rather than run like a normal human . OK there was a problem. Discouraged I walked back home, stretched it out, iced it, etc.

That day I didn't exactly walk, but gimped around. Well that can't be good. Now I decided to give running a rest for a couple days and let it recover. I took a trip to Rite-Aid and dropped $50 on knee and pain products. I bought myself an ACE knee brace, a hot/cold wrap, and a bottle of 1,000 aspirin. The next day the ol' knee was slightly improved, and by Sunday it felt alright again. Still a little sore, but I wasn't limping so I gave it another shot. Again, after one mile, it began to hurt again, but this time I decided not to push it, cut my losses and walked home. For the past week I kept did no running, but tried to figure out why my knee was so f'd up.

There are two main things that I think have been causing it:

1. I may need different shoes. After looking at my running soles and checking out my foot I realized that I have a high arch, more than normal. This causes my stride to land on the outside of the foot and then my foot/ankle kind of turns inward after impact. That can't be good on the knees. I'm gonna get myself to a good running store, see if my self diagnosis is correct, and if so what they recommend.
2. I tried to do too many miles too quickly that first week of training. I went from running about 12 miles a week to trying to do 25. As my friend Mike pointed out, its best to stick to the 10% rule -- increasing weekly mileage by only 10% each week. i.e. increasing it by 100% was probably not a good idea. I think for the next two weeks I'll concentrate on short runs, about 3-4 miles, four times per week. I'll see how that feels and then start increasing my mileage. This means I may fall behind my mileage pace to get up to marathon length, but I'd rather keep my knees healthy and at worst I have to settle for doing the half-marathon. Not the end of the world.

UPDATE: Well after giving a go at this 3-miles at a time plan, I've had not so promising results. The knee felt a little uncomfortable from the start but no serious pain. I made it about 2 miles and then the pain set in. I went another quarter mile felt some sharp pains and then stopped, stretched, and took a slightly painful walk home. Great. Well tomorrow I'll take a trip to the running store, see if new shoes will help and then give it another shot. Right now this is just very frustrating more than anything. If it was just muscle pain that would be one thing, that's something that I can just run through. But this knee problem makes it difficult to simply bend my knee and the shooting pain is a totally different sensation than plain soreness. Its also worth noting that this isn't exactly a new development; the same thing happened last summer when I tried to running regularly and picking up my mileage.

I'm open to advice from anyone who has experienced similar problems or who has a little more knowledge in this area. Stay tuned, hopefully I can get through a full run this weekend. Time's a wasting!